Kite Balloons

A Lilliputian army battles with a giant wartime observation balloon before it's towed out to sea.

It's up, up and away, as a Lilliputian army battles with a giant war-time observation balloon before it's towed out to sea to spy on the enemy. Duty performed, the balloon is returned to its hangar. The slight loss of image at the beginning of the film is due to the chemical decomposition of the original 35mm nitrocellulose stock, used in the early days of film production.

While they offered excellent vantage points for intelligence-gathering purposes, early observation balloons were very vulnerable to artillery fire and could prove deadly to occupants - they were filled with extremely flammable hydrogen gas.